Non-Alumni Fans
So a Sparty made a video about the fans of Michigan (and other schools) that have no connection to the school outside of fandom.
Having difficulty embedding it so... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46MsGQFrzPE
His thesis is that only students have earned the right to say "we", which is disagree with because only players truly have that right. Also only alumni are able to build that close of a bond because of the shared struggle financially and emotionally.
If there is no connection to the school you should be a professional sports team fan instead.
I am a huge supporter of sidewalk alumni myself but I was curious what other people felt about the issue.
October 31st, 2013 at 10:37 PM ^
October 31st, 2013 at 5:45 PM ^
If people who didn't go to the school want to be fans, what's wrong with that? The school represents some kind of values, or image, and for Michigan what's not to like?
The Team the team the team.
November 1st, 2013 at 8:46 AM ^
I was busy passing out 174 candy bars last night, so I missed this. But, yes, anyone can cheer for any team!!! Ridiculous. So a plumber cannot cheer for a college team?? I pick sides sometimes in MAC games, but I didn't go to a MAC school, I went to Michigan. It's America, cheer for whomever you want! They are just mad because more people cheer for Michigan than state.
October 31st, 2013 at 5:46 PM ^
October 31st, 2013 at 5:47 PM ^
They're jealous. They wish they had as many fans as us. You think they wouldn't dream of having Spartan Stadium filled with 109,000 fans every home game?
October 31st, 2013 at 6:39 PM ^
Maybe, but the weird thing is that during basketball season I would argue that they have had the massive non-alum following, not Michigan.
October 31st, 2013 at 7:10 PM ^
I live in NC in the Triangle. MSU MBB has played Duke and UNC numerous times. People are much more familar with Michigan as a brand in MBB, not to mention football (thanks to the Fab5 and last year's run).
October 31st, 2013 at 9:03 PM ^
Perhaps nationally, but I can't tell you how many "I root for Michigan football and Michigan State basketball" people over the last decade.
November 1st, 2013 at 10:17 AM ^
I've got a buddy, born in Memphis, roots for the UT Vols in football and the Memphis Tigers in basketball. THE EXACT ANALOGY I USE is that it would be like me pulling for Michigan in football and State in basketball. Not unreasonable to think there's more than a few Michiganders who do the same thing.
October 31st, 2013 at 5:51 PM ^
I have absolutely no problem with non-alumni being fans of a school. I see no harm in it at all.
I do, however, hate when people say "we" when discussing professional sports. The TIgers made the ALCS. You did nothing. "We" didn't make the ALCS, "they" made the ALCS. For whatever reason, that's always bothered me. While I don't do it, I don't mind as much when alumni of a University say "we." There is a shared connection with the University that raises alumni to more than just a fan/viewer - you were part of the University at one time and have a legitimate connection with the team.
I don't know how I came to these decisions in my head, but that's always been the distinctions I've made.
October 31st, 2013 at 5:56 PM ^
Disagree. While I/we didn't make the ALCS, we as fans are an integral part of why there is a team at any level. More importantly, we is a less complicated way of describing the team on internet forums.
October 31st, 2013 at 7:30 PM ^
October 31st, 2013 at 6:00 PM ^
I remember reading an interesting Grantland article discussing the "we" issue in sports. I agree and I cringe when somebody says/writes that.
There's definitely nothing wrong with somebody rooting for whatever team they want. I was born and raised a Michigan fan, and I'm sure as hell not going to ditch the team and my fandom just because some guy says I have to be an Alumni to cheer. Sounds pretty childish to me.
October 31st, 2013 at 6:10 PM ^
There have been many sociological and pysch articles written on the issue of "we" in sports, but at least for the school it plays a critical role. The shared connection of "we" is what keeps people connected and donating to the school after they leave and is one of the justifactions for schools putting money into sports.
October 31st, 2013 at 9:56 PM ^
in the good old days. I remember starting out objecting to it, maybe for somewhat snobby reasons, coming to think that to the degree it suggested people felt part of something it was great.
The Walmart Woverine trope is fascinating when MSU fans are always accusing Ann Arborites of being snobs. The fact that working people tend to go for Michigan over State certainly suggests Michigan is doing something right. Pisses MSY fans off so much that they go out and make fun of workign people; you'd think they would see the contradiction.
If the sale of sports gear is an indication, MSU has almost no national reach whatsoever.
October 31st, 2013 at 6:23 PM ^
This seems unnecessarily complicated. If you're a fan, by definition you have an obsessive, fantatical devotion to the team, so why not include yourself in with it? If you didn't buy tickets and merchandise, the club wouldn't have the money to acquire all those players, anyway.
October 31st, 2013 at 6:30 PM ^
October 31st, 2013 at 6:57 PM ^
And it's not like this is the only place I do that. If I'm talking about the company I work for, I'll say "we" even if it's a project I don't work directly on.
October 31st, 2013 at 7:15 PM ^
Agreed. It's much easier when discussing sports to use "we" vs. "they" rather than saying the team name everytime. It's just an acronym, and it's just fine.
How many sports fans say something along the lines of "If we can stop turning the ball over and keep them in 3rd and long situations, we should be in good shape."? What is wrong with that?
October 31st, 2013 at 9:25 PM ^
November 1st, 2013 at 4:39 PM ^
They're the Detroit Tigers. So if anyone is playing the "we card" frist, it's the teams. The Lakers changed names from the Minneapolis Lakers to the LA Lakers. It's not "The Tigers of Detroit" or "The Lakers from Los Angeles."
October 31st, 2013 at 5:52 PM ^
My paycheck and health insurance come from the University of Michigan. Is this person seriously saying that I have no right to cheer for a team that represents my employer?
Also, this is ironic because I work with two diehard Sparties.(who did not attend college)
October 31st, 2013 at 6:13 PM ^
Watch the video before you post.
Students, Alumni, and Faculty
October 31st, 2013 at 6:17 PM ^
October 31st, 2013 at 6:17 PM ^
October 31st, 2013 at 6:52 PM ^
i dont think that i have to be accepted to u of m to be a fan/ say 'we' when disscussing their teams
October 31st, 2013 at 7:19 PM ^
Or what if you have family members who went there? What if I, as an alumnus, have kids who grow up Michigan fans, and then one of my kids goes to Harvard or Emory or some school that doesn't have big time football?
And MSU has plenty of those kinds of fans. My little brother went to Western. He is a Michigan fan, and lots of his college friends were State fans.
This is why I hate it when MSU people use this. It's not that they don't have non-alumni fans, it's that they have far fewer of them than us.
October 31st, 2013 at 6:29 PM ^
you?
For example, UM employs some 4,000 nurses.Then there are the thousands of people who are employed in a wide variety of jobs.
October 31st, 2013 at 5:54 PM ^
This is why little brother is relevant. It transcends the playing field. A university that can't attract non-alumni or any fans out of state will always criticize the crown jewel of the state for bringing in fans who didn't attend that school. They are basically complimenting Michigan without knowing it.
October 31st, 2013 at 5:55 PM ^
The only thing that bugs me is the front runners who latch onto a team because it wins big, but abandon it when it struggles. If you want to be a fan through thick and thin, as if you were an alum, go for it. Not everyone gets to attend college, why can't those people pick a team to support?
October 31st, 2013 at 6:28 PM ^
I disagree with the notion that you should support your team just as much when they are winning as when they are losing. I am a die hard Pistons fan, but the last couples of years have been hard for me to be as enthusiastic about the team as I was when they were competing for championships. I don't seem to be the only one, as the Pistons struggled to fill seats at the Palace the last few seasons as well. I think there needs to be a motivating factor for a team to win, if they made just as much money, and had just as many fans when they were losing they would have no incentive to win.
October 31st, 2013 at 7:00 PM ^
Probably the test is, would you root for a team to beat the Pistons? If no, you're unenthusiastic, but still a fan.
October 31st, 2013 at 7:16 PM ^
I don't know if that's really the test. If someone asked me if I'd root for a team to beat, say, the San Diego Padres, I'd say "no," but it's not because I'm a fan of them - I literally don't care about National League baseball either way, so I wouldn't root for or against any team there (with the sole exception of the case of an NL team meeting the Tigers in the WS).
Now if you said, "Would you rather see the Pistons win than anyone else?" I think that would come closer.
October 31st, 2013 at 7:22 PM ^
I think your last paragraph is what he meant. I'm the same way as you - I watched the Pistons all the time in the mid-2000s and have followed less closely since. But if anyone asks who my favorite NBA team is, it's still the Pistons. The difference that posters are trying to make here is if I picked a different good team to cheer for in place of the Pistons when they took a down turn.
October 31st, 2013 at 5:56 PM ^
Their obsession with this concept is quite bizarre.
October 31st, 2013 at 8:03 PM ^
October 31st, 2013 at 5:58 PM ^
seems pretty far-fetched to me.
October 31st, 2013 at 5:59 PM ^
As an alum, I love our fanbase whether they went to school at Michigan or not.
October 31st, 2013 at 6:02 PM ^
before I ever enrolled as a student. I videotaped every Michigan game that was on TV (not that many, considering I grew up in Texas). When I finally enrolled at Michigan at age 31, it didn't kick me up a notch of fandom or earn me status as an "official" Michigan fan (or Michigan Man). I had already earned that with every bit of joy ("Goodbye... Hello, Heisman!") and suffering (Kordell to Westbrook arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh) I'd been through as a result of living and dying Maize and Blue.
I've been "we" since age 5, man. I got 99 claims to Michigan fandom, and the degree ain't one. But I do like the way it looks on the wall. Mahogany frame, ya'll.
October 31st, 2013 at 6:01 PM ^
I am associated with who neither went to MSU, worked at MSU, or had a relative who went to MSU and is a Michigan State fan. And her rationale is because Green is her favorite color. Everybody else in the same situation cheers for Michigan. For obvious reasons. For some reason, this gets Sparty really persnickety.
October 31st, 2013 at 7:25 PM ^
Well this really isn't the case though. This might have something to do with where you grew up, but I knew a lot of kids growing up who were MSU fans over UM, despite not having a "connection." That said, far more people with no actual affiliation cheer for Michigan, and I agree that the reasons are obvious. But MSU purports that all of their fans are technically affiliated in some way and that isn't true. Some people just like MSU better. Just not anywhere near as many as Michigan.
November 1st, 2013 at 4:44 PM ^
I had the same reason for picking my favorite NFL team.
When I was 5.
October 31st, 2013 at 6:04 PM ^
as a non-alumni fan, and if a MSU fan starts throwing out the walmart insults, I usually just try to joke it off and say something like "Well actually I get my Michigan stuff from Meijer" and then they usually think I'm serious and start lecturing me about what they meant about Walmart Wolverine. It's kind of funny how serious they take their walmart insults. It's almost like they all have stock in Walmart the way they are promoting it by randomly talking about it over and over.
I also find some of the insults from MSU fans about non-alumni fans hypocritical. They often say stuff that non UM alumni fans take shots at MSU as an academic instiute (which I agree is dumb to do when it happens), but I think it's ignorant to not realize that there are many other good colleges in the state of Michigan besides Michigan and Michigan St. Just take a look at the MIAA schools - Kalamazoo, Albion, Calvin, Hope, ect. -All just as or more prestigious than MSU. Just because someone doesn't go to MSU or UM, doesn't mean they aren't educated.
Someone also may grow up a Michigan fan but may not go to Michigan because of various reasons such as financial aid, location, student size, programs/majors, ect.
October 31st, 2013 at 8:14 PM ^
November 1st, 2013 at 7:19 AM ^
is why we need posbangs back. Dude doesn't even have 100 MGoPoints yet and adds this gem to the board. Welcome sir.
November 1st, 2013 at 9:50 AM ^
October 31st, 2013 at 6:01 PM ^
I think the only reason state fans get upset about "walmart wolverines" is because us as michigan fans constantly try to establish our superiority over them. they seem to use it to try and bring down our fan base as a whole pointing out those of us who dont fit the profile we try to highlight, the profile of the leader, the "best". But really they have fans that didnt go to their school, just like how a lot of us a slippery rock fans despite never attending The Rock. Fans follow a school for a variety of reasons and we shouldnt care about why somebody is a fan.
October 31st, 2013 at 6:03 PM ^
October 31st, 2013 at 6:03 PM ^